it with all of over thirty thousand troops from afghanistan is one of the main pledges and barack obama's state of the union address. the foreign policy areas he wasn't keen to talk about. tolerance is broken in the israeli media a shroud of secrecy of the death of an alleged secret agent in custody despite the government trying to keep it quiet. and with europeans paying some of the highest taxes in the world the wealthy take flight to protect their cash and small business is taking too big a hit. from

a new center here in moscow this is r t with the online on the screen twenty four hours a day. the first state of the union address of his second term to try and appease lawmakers and taxpayers making fresh promises to boost the economy and slash debt and foreign policy the us president also announced thirty four thousand troops will leave afghanistan by next february he looks at what he did and didn't say. after over a decade of war troops are coming home in twenty fourteen as obama put it obama points out that there are two missions now one to prepare handing afghan forces take over so that the country does not slip into chaos again the key word here again it almost seems as if it's now a stable place just today reports of ten civilians killed by

a nato strike targeting taliban insurgents now obama spent most of his speech talking about the economy and taxes he failed to mention that so far the u.s. has invested over one hundred billion dollars in reconstruction of afghanistan and that this year alone it's expected another thirty billion dollars could be spent in eight this as the afghan state is rated one of the most corrupt in the world despite red flags from a watchdog monitory bad aid they say there's no way of ensuring all this money is going to the right place or whose hands the cash is falling into and that it's too dangerous in many places in afghanistan to safely observe what's happening where former and. some have become very rich including western officials well most afghans have been left with nothing many countries thrive on this war they make money there in their un people are others who are lined up and making fat salaries

and while the life of afghan ordinary afghans have not changed of course we have had some things like media. communication and this and that but. in relation to what was available and what could have been done it's drop in the bucket now obama also spoke of defending democracy across the globe most notably the arab spring which is previously been held by his administration a great success especially libya egypt and tunisia those countries of course now still drowning in chaos and violence two years on well. ahmed has changed his tune a bit now saying well it's going to be messy those transitions also his tone on syria a bit distant considering a year ago the u.s. was insisting president off to moscow a lot of speculation about intervention was going on now the president saying they will continue to put pressure on the syrian leader but another pledge from obama to

continue to push for a legal and durable policy on counter terrorism no mention here of guantanamo drones or wiretapping and obama mentioned internet freedoms well sort of he flaunted signing an executive order on cyber defense but the order is really seen as a response to congress's refusal to pass the cyber intelligence sharing and protection act or says last year in light of serious privacy concerns in other words a loophole is now available for sis to effectively be put into action. well let's get more on a bomber's comments on cybersecurity from laws k. he's the leader of the u.k. party laws president obama he cited growing threats from cyber attacks how justified are these fears well of course that we all want to be protecting key infrastructure in our country but frankly this extremely worrying that a bomb has chosen to assign an executive order in such

a controversial area cyber security now your report mentions very controversial and that is that was before the house the so-called sis. civil liberties groups have been well been warning that this was a pathway to syria through possible serious monitoring of ordinary citizens internet use now or be so sensually by signing an executive order this is by no hearts in congress but that also means bypassing public debate on this important issue but but he does stress that this executive order will possess strong privacy and civil liberties protections so why don't you trust that. sure the executive order in itself is actually an improvement on sis and in particular because the information is just about flowing in one direction from

government to key infrastructure company however it's pretty transparent that this actually was accenture the political power to quote pressure on congress to actually to move forward with the legislation and indeed a promise said that explicitly within within the state of the union address what's what's very worrying it's still the definitions are very loose so what constitutes final intrusion for for example. denial of service attacks. which are usually for example we've seen time and time again legislation brought in the name of national security to be or to be used for widely and actually harassing ordinary citizens but why is that knows what it because you just said key infrastructure interests are at stake here a bomb has power grids financial institutions and the air traffic control systems

could be sabotaged now surely something's got to be done if that threat is really existing and why then should ordinary people be worried about the impact of those being protected. by this initiative what will probably have to look for what is actually on board on the table here it's out when we come down when we come back to actual these key infrastructure areas where it's basically ordinary ordinary police think it's actually a bit ridiculous to address this arc and it's unmanned which side of this that and the other but the important thing funny is fine with security it's about securing systems and technology not securing access to the private information of citizens and all of this legislation. it's actually information sharing that it's the constat it's really the concern that civil liberties groups so this sort of ask you this doesn't vote or do citizens like you and me the we use the internet every day

is it not aimed at criminal groups terrorists and indeed even state sponsored organizations well i mean if we look at what the executive order has in it it's actually i think it's going to end up pleasing no on because security experts said today that it's that it's actually pretty truthful it's this is because it's an exact it doesn't how that same power to compel companies to act but that is actually as i said it's it's it's actually essentially a political tool. pressure on congress. is not on the take walk this is coming back and this has huge huge implications in terms of all. of this is not just for us concerns all of us around the world starts laws thanks a lot you could hear your thoughts there from the u.k. pirate party live here on r.t. thank you. well thousands are taking to the streets of dresden to protest against

a neo nazi march held annually by far right extremists it marks the anniversary of the allied bombing of the city in eastern germany where we can now see pictures live pictures from marty's brand new video agency ruptly some three thousand police from across the country were sent to dresden to prevent clashes between the marchers and their opponents in art is a condemning the bombing that nearly destroyed the city months before the end of world war two but local residents there they're angry at what they see as a hijacking of the anniversary for the purposes of propaganda when i was taught more than that with georgina sikorsky she's from the european network against racism she joins me now live from brussels now this is an annual event georgina how alarming is it that it it's become a tradition after all this time. sorry could you repeat this. is an annual event we're seeing there in dresden just tell warring is it but it's

becoming a tradition after all this time i mean this this bombing happened toward the end of the second world war yes i mean it's a it's an extremely worrying phenomenon because it is there isn't as we see the not only in germany but in other european countries as well there is an increasing popularity of these far rights movements and even their nuts who reads for instance then at the same time it's really encouraging to see that interest and there is this counter march happening that really has shows that there is a position to these movements and position to idealogies promoting hatred and extremism why is there a royds in the interests of near naziism throughout europe now as you just said. i mean it's difficult to pinpoint one cause i mean obviously economic crisis is exacerbating tensions of duty loss of jobs exception but at the same time it's

i mean it's been the. since before the economic crisis so it's really difficult to pinpoint one or was that what's really important is that governments and politicians really take a clear starts against the ideas promoted by. really promote a message that unites instead of separates people the economic situation isn't getting any better throughout europe is it there will soon the debt crisis continue more and more social unrest so therefore where perhaps could this worrying trend in india not lead to. well it's difficult to say i mean i'm not i'm not i don't have a crystal ball to look into the future that i mean obviously the continuing economic crisis is not going to help but polluting. leaders really show political will to fight this and to really promote social inclusion and promote equality

then i think we can with yet you talk about social inclusion multiculturalism that could be a threat all those initiatives that european countries are trying to promote could be undermined by this. yesterday i mean in some countries we've seen that despite the crisis governments are continuing to. invest in in social inclusion policies and integration policies so i mean it shows that even despite the crisis it doesn't mean that governments don't have to continue you know promoting these policies and that is improving its situation for europeans is there not a danger that the far right parties could really make it to mainstream european politics any time soon we see what's going on in greece at the moment. yes i mean definitely in some countries i mean the far right has had some breakthrough i mean we've seen also in the recent financial actions that have had to find a big share of the votes so that at the same time another actually is the far right

has has had losses so there's not really. picture across europe but there's definitely a danger that for instance in cultures like greece if the government doesn't invest in social measures that this might be the case in the future georgina from the european network who gets racism thank you very much indeed for joining us georgina thanks thanks for being with us live here on r.t. . just ahead this hour european leaders may think tax hikes will help tackle the debt crisis something we've just been talking about in that interview europe's wealthy are being lured away by latex countries with small business left at home struggling to stay afloat a report on that is just ahead for us and also still to come. in teaching religious schools spread across tunisia after more than. decades of being bad under the previous regime investigate whether islam in schools is good for young minds that report after the break.

you know how sometimes you see a story and it seems so for lengthly you think you understand it and then you glimpse something else and you hear or see some other part of it and realized everything you thought you knew you don't know i'm tom harpur welcome to the big picture.

continues in r.t. a man who is out of work is himself on fire in front of a job center in the french city of nonce the forty three year old self emote immolated after finding out he was ineligible for unemployment benefit the last time this happened in france was last august when a man died after burning himself in paris well let's get the details from marty's a silly or tell us what exactly happened there in this latest case of self immolation. well we have the basic details what we know is that this forty three year old man is jobless unemployed and he had died after setting himself on

fire in front of that employment agency and a french city of none to know it said it reports that he had actually set a letter to some journalists saying that he was going to do this this week so the police had said that they had set of surveillance outside that employment agency but they didn't manage to see him he was already on fire they said he had entered through a side street and therefore this tragedy had happened now the man did this after finding out that he is no longer eligible for those unemployment benefits and as you mentioned earlier this is not the first time it has happened in france in august we know that a fifty year old jobless man has done the same and this is a worrying sign for france for a country that has seen its unemployment rising for the past twenty months and this after a president had been elected on a campaign of jobs and growth so we haven't seen any improvements on this monster a lot has declared twenty thirteen as a battle for jobs he said that by the end of the year there would be he would be

creating jobs for the french people however statistics show that by midyear the number is set to rise and let's not forget that more than three million french people this number does not include people who have quit the unemployment program because they simply have exhausted all their benefits similar to the case of the man who were just burned to myself and also those young people who have never registered or those who are in part time jobs and who are hoping to find better jobs this is not included in those numbers and therefore reality is much grimmer than the numbers to say also france's finances have been going down for the past thirty five years according to the o.e.c.d. it's not getting better but as you say the job problem really doesn't look as if it's getting any better as indeed the financial situation only fears that we sort of desperate could be repeated because of these conditions. well the acts that we saw in france today is far fall we actually already seen in other countries so we hope it does not going to new but if we look at the trend we've seen a lot of suicides and attempted suicides in countries like greece one of the hardest

hit euro zone countries because of this eurozone crisis there's a general feeling of the still in the country a lot of people going out in protests we've also heard of stories of suicide to italy another hard hit country so if we're looking at the trend that's happening in europe we hope it does not continue but we could see a lot more of expressions of dissatisfaction hopefully not resorting to suicides but we can see protests certainly are still down the line of people expressing their does this satisfaction at the fact that unemployment is still going up they simply do not have jobs what what we see here in france is simply a slice of life a glimpse into that individual's life if giving life to that statistic unemployment rising this is what happens on the ground to an individual who is suffering through the unemployment crisis here in europe. from brussels thanks very much indeed for that. we're just getting some news just

in this breaking news that a passenger plane carrying about forty people has crash landed near the city of donetsk in eastern ukraine it's believed the aircraft which was on an internal float missed the runway and overturned before bursting into flames a full scale of casualties isn't clear but early reports suggest at least three people have been killed with four still missing reasons for the crash landing are under investigation of course we'll bring you more details as we get them here live on our team. a veil of silence of the death of a top secret prisoner has been lifted by the israeli media which had been gagged by a court order it surface following a report in the australian press about a man linked to the israeli secret service who hanged himself in prison after months of being held in secret or has the details. israeli prime minister benjamin netanyahu summoned the editors of all the major israeli news outlets to an emergency meeting and in that meeting he asked them not to publish the story saying

and i'm quoting that it would be embarrassing to a certain government agency not at first the editors did listen and all references to the original australian report were removed from israeli news websites but later it was brought back not only to the websites but also to all the radio and t.v. stations here and certainly sincerely also this morning it has been the headline news everyone there is referencing it as a report from australia not what we understand is that israeli parliament terence did oss the justice minister to confirm whether or not this report was true they also demanded to know if there were other prisoners who were being held in secret in israeli jails the justice minister's comments were and i'm quoting that there is no doubt that if this information is accurate this is something that needs to be checked state senses and gave news outlets in israel the green light to report on this parliamentary debate but nothing else but of course we're witnessing now that

the reporting has gone much further than just this debate such a gag order it is important to say it is highly unusual in israel ways state military sense is normally an hour of the local media to quote foreign sources on controversial topics such as the alleged israeli strike in syria last month what we also understand is that various human rights groups such as human rights watch as well as the israeli civil rights movement has been aware of this particular incident for quite some time now the australian media is reporting that this man came to live in israel when he was a youngster he made what is called and he was recruiting on the stand by the side of these ready secret service something went wrong and we've been given no reason for him being imprisoned but they respect the nation that it would have had to be connected somehow with espionage and sensitive state secrets the. former foreign minister avigdor lieberman has said that the left wing parliamentarians have damaged israeli security by bringing this issue to the fore in the first place. we

got more stories in great videos for you the moment of r.t. dot com that's our web site online all the time here's a quick look at what we got there at the moment taking a battering from mother nature residents in parts of new york which were hit hardest by hurricane sandy in for an unfortunate surprise from the city's tax authorities. the iraqi capital baghdad makes its first steps onto the catwalk in ten years the fashion show is seen as a symbolic break from the years of turmoil since the u.s. invasion more nuts on the web sites on. tax hikes still the default plan for e.u. nations trying to get out of debt and while the super rich can freeze or places that won't take such a slice of their cash small business is left behind say livelihoods are at risk. he's a leading man of stage and screen however european heads of state will be hoping

share our debt by do doesn't become the leader of a tax exodus by the super rich front lawns decision to push through a seventy five percent top rate of tax on those earning over one million euros saw the actor up sticks and head to russia europe has some of the highest rates of taxation in the world with many giving the lion's share of the things to the state of vermont feel the need can be a balancing act of course you want to run a successful business but if you make over a certain amount you find yourself paying out huge quantities of tax over fifty percent but there are warnings for europe that when compared to low tax countries like russia they could lose their competitive edge if their country was low taxes and cut with a high taxes capital flow well to country with low taxes in the same is true for people with talent there's always going to be people that think the taxes are too

high but a growing number actually starting to think that it's becoming detrimental to the development of business but he can't owns a haulage company in munich currently he employs around ninety people transporting everything from the small to the big and bulky all over mainland europe he says that lowering the current rate of tax would not just make big changes to his business but also to the lives of his staff that's where not only can his was our current he would be super first i could pay higher salaries this is a very important issue right now due to the rise in the cost of living also i can invest more into the company and grow the business even employ more people everyone benefits something that is impossible under the current tax system. those in power argue that the problem in european countries right now is that taxpayers want to have the best. both worlds. of the phenomenon we face regarding taxes is that

everyone wants to pay as little as possible however no one is willing to give up the services that those taxes go to pay for it still we keep signs of any major tax cuts on the horizon in your businesses like this one going to have to continue to struggle to bring home the bacon but it comes to saving for a future development these are all other arty. religious education is making a serious comeback in tunisia two years after the regime which banned the teaching of islam was toppled the current government has no control of private muslim schools springing up across the country and the worry is that spreading extremism. visited a school where the qur'an is the main subject. tunisia's learned some tough lessons in the wake of its revolt but now the report card for what's going on in its schools is facing examination in the school in one of the poorest districts of the tunisian capital children come to learn about the qur'an and the way of life of

true muslims religious education was banned under the old regime but it's making a comeback in a big way the rise of islam islam has led to an increase in the number of religious schools springing up across the country these schools are private operating outside of the control of state officials who have no say over what's being taught in these schools and some worry that this may lead to a rise in the number of young extremists even many religious experts agree filling young minds with religious doctrines may not be the best way to bring up children. what. i read in one of the papers sent by a three year old girl to her mother with a message my beloved mom teach me about the afterlife the same way you teach about this life is this a way to teach three year old children we can see it clearly attempts to brainwash these children dr mooney carried out an extensive research of religious schools and

to nice to find out whether critics were right to say that they were damaging to the country's post revolutionary development she found most schools were primarily focused on teaching strict islamic values without worrying about the effect these methods may have on youngsters. i have noticed that all female teachers at these schools where any while teaching you can't see her face this is in contradiction with what's known in psychology as communication how can she communicate with the kids of her face is covered emotions and movement of vital to kids and social interaction such things do not contradict our values and morals. but parents who send their children to study at the schools believe they are on the right track. how did you get in your. values is a way to ensure that they will lead a proper life from childhood studying the koran improves memory increases thinking abilities and says the right course for the rest of their lives. not even the

ministry of education is able to say exactly how many religious schools there are in tunisia after the revolution they sprung up over the country many operating without license from the state the government has acknowledged the problem but has its hands full trying to keep the economy together. is on the backburner absence of control that especially worrisome on top of the concerns about extremist salafist groups gaining ground. these groups don't believe in democracy republic and freedom they consider them to be against their religion they want to impose their way of life on by force as if they know better than other people. after the arab spring revolt tunisians were eager to embrace what they hoped would be a new way of life but with radical islam permeating more and more spheres of everyday life these children's future i mean not be exactly what many parents had hoped for in their quest for freedom and democracy in tunisia. are.

well over but the news team with more news heard about. its business with katie katie i want to talk about illegal capital yeah and the alarming rise in the last eighteen years we've seen it reach a level of over two hundred billion dollars i'm going to be expanding is that why and the implications in the business person after the break so. thanks very much.